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Hurricane FB Cup Inv'l Tournament - 11v11 - Girls U12 (playing up)
Broken Arrow, OK
Finalist
02/23/2008 - Bracket - TSC 97 Red 3, Thunder 96 Jamaica 0
02/23/2008 - Bracket - TSC 97 Red 1, HFC 96 Beattie 1
02/24/2008 - Bracket - TSC 97 Red 4, Cosmo 96 White 0
02/24/2008 - Playoff/Shootout - TSC 97 Red 3, 96 HFC Beattie 2
02/24/2008 - Final - TSC 97 Red 1, HFC 97 Elkingon 1 (HFC wins 2-1 in shootout)
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TSC 97 RED ADVANCES TO FINALS PLAYING UP IN HFC CUP
BROKEN ARROW, OKLA – The regulation play-clock wasn’t enough. Twelve year-old girls with heavier feet, elongated strides and higher vantage points weren’t up for the task. Though challenging, the ridiculously extreme single-day, time-constrained, triple-header match schedule cleverly crafted to protect home-team advantage was an insufficient deterrent. In the end, it was a one-inch length of white painted steel that proved the ultimate nemesis in extinguishing the TSC 97 Red girl’s pursuit of a second straight tournament championship. TSC fell short in a shootout when penalty kick number five bounced wayward fretfully clipping the inner corner of the left goal post during the U12 final contest playing up in the Hurricane Futball Club Invitational Cup on February 24, 2008 at Indian Springs Soccer Complex.
On Saturday morning in marginally frigid conditions, TSC 97 Red started strong in its tourney opener against Thunder 96 Jamaica handily posting a 3-0 shutout. By mid-day dropping temperatures combined with chilling drizzle contributed to the difficulty of squaring off against an older, more experienced Hurricane 96 Beattie team Saturday afternoon. TSC held its own, negating HFC’s speed and strength with skill and tenacity to tie their elders 1-1 in game two, creating a Bracket A points tie between TSC and HFC. HFC had also defeated 96 Jamaica 3-0 on Friday evening and would go on to beat Cosmos 96 White 4-0 in bracket play Saturday evening.
TSC arrived early Sunday and took the field against Cosmos 96 White bearing an underdog mentality, in the full knowledge of needing four goals to stay alive to force a playoff, and five goals to win the bracket outright. Netting four goals was not so difficult a burden as TSC strapped three on quickly in the first half and capitalized on a penalty kick early in the second. With pressure mounting to seal the bracket win with a fifth score, a frenzied yet fruitless offensive was launched late in the game. By the final whistle, TSC still had only four goals to show for its frustratingly unproductive 31 attempts. While awaiting news of the designated playoff time against HFC Beattie, Coach Matt Blackwell and team lamented their fast-track-to-finals opportunity lost.
One and one half hours later, TSC revisited HFC Beattie in a 15-minute playoff to decide who would meet Bracket B winner HFC 97 Elkington for the final showdown. The quarter-hour abbreviated match was a fiercely fought battle, ending scoreless and pushing the playoff to a shootout to decide the winner. The TSC goalkeeper put one PK in herself before thwarting two opponents’. TSC edged out HFC, when the crapshoot extended to the sixth man with TSC gaining the sudden-death advantage.
The unwielding tournament schedule required that finals commence little more than an hour later, therefore, however warily, TSC 97 Red lined up for kickoff opposite class arch rival and returning HFC Cup finalist HFC 97 Elkington for the start of an all U11 team final of a U12 tournament bracket. On its first possession, TSC took command of the game, resolutely marching down the field and sticking a zinger into the top left corner. The energizing lead would not last as HFC capitalized on a mid-first half corner kick bobble redirect that found the back of the net to equalize the score. The stalemate would continue for the remainder of the game. Fresh-legged HFC owned midfield territory but was unable to surmount the determination of the weary TSC defense who mustered the will to thwart all other scoring attempts and got flat-out lucky on a few poorly contested just-wide HFC long bombs. An equally exhausted TSC offense reached deep to string a handful of runs together, ripping off some impressive shots that narrowly cleared the goal posts above and beyond. The 1-1 tie at the end of regulation plunged the contest into two ten-minute golden goal overtime periods that also produced no winner. The finals would be decided by a shootout. Going into the fifth kick with a 2-1 deficit, TSC had to put the next PK in to send it to sudden-death, but was unable to answer, conceding the championship to HFC 97 Elkington. |
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